Volunteer Opportunities

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much,” Helen Keller.Want to see what volunteering at the Food Bank is all about? Hear it straight from our volunteers!

Food Sorting and Packing

Much of the donated food Northern Illinois Food Bank distributes needs to be inspected, sorted and packaged before it’s distributed to our hungry neighbors. We simply could not do this without the help of volunteers. Last year, volunteers donated more than 155,000 hours of their time, the equivalent of 74 full-time employees.

Whether you can volunteer once a week, once a month or once a year; individually or with a group of friends, family or colleagues, whatever your commitment, every hour of assistance helps us ensure our hungry neighbors will have access to food in their time of need.

Individuals, families, corporate and social groups are welcome! Children ages 8 and older can volunteer with families or in groups with adult chaperones. If you would like to register a group of 20 or more please call and speak to a member of the Volunteer Team directly at (630) 443-6910. If your group is less than 20, please use the links below to register online at the Center of your choosing.

If you do not see an available shift for your group on the schedule please call (630) 443-6910.
We rely on our volunteers very much so we will do our best to accommodate your specific request.

West Suburban Center

273 Dearborn Ct
Geneva, IL 60134

Volunteer Shifts

Weekdays:
Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
1:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Weeknights:
Tuesdays
6:00 PM – 8:30 PM

Thursdays
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Weekends:
Saturdays
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Northwest Center

765 Research Parkway
Rockford, IL 61109

Volunteer Shifts

Weekdays:
Tuesdays
9:00 AM – 11:30 AM

Tues , Thurs
1:00 PM – 3:30 PM

Weeknights:
Wednesdays (1st & 3rd)
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM

Weekends:
Saturdays
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

North Suburban Center

440 Keller Drive
Park City, IL 60085

Volunteer Shifts

Weekdays:
Tuesdays
1:00 PM – 3:30 PM

Thursdays
9:00 AM – 11:30 AM

Weeknights:
Wednesdays
6:00 PM – 8:30 PM

Weekends:
Sat: 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM

Skills Based Volunteer Opportunities

Professionals with expertise in areas such as finance, human resources, information technology, operations and logistics can help the food bank with specialized projects that allow us to grow and improve our ability to feed our hungry neighbors. Find out more and see available projects here.

VolunTeens Program

Our VolunTeens Program is designed to give high schoolers in our community more leadership skills and opportunities that will allow them to give back to their community. VolunTeens are trained to act as Volunteer Supervisors in our warehouse where they lead projects and manage volunteers.

For high school students aged 16-18

VolunTeens commit to at least one shift a week in the warehouse where they are leading volunteer projects. Missing two shifts (without notice) will result in termination from the program.

VolunTeens will have the opportunity to volunteer in other areas – Nutrition Education, Monitoring, Mobile Pantries, Research, etc.

Get the chance to receive a $1000 scholarship courtesy of H.B. Fuller!

The VolunTeens Spring program is now accepting applicants. Please fill out the application here.

The program runs from January 25th to April 18th with an orientation on January 25th.

Offsite Opportunities

Listed below are offsite volunteer opportunities that become available periodically and are not ongoing. If interested please create or update your online volunteer profile to indicate you are interested in these areas. When an opportunity in your interest area becomes available, you will receive an email.

Special Events

Special event volunteers assist in planning fundraising events, soliciting sponsorship or auction items, or providing day of logistic support.

Speakers Bureau

Volunteers are trained by the Food Bank’s Communications department and represent the Food Bank at community speaking opportunities.

Poverty Simulation

A poverty simulation is designed to help participants understand the realities faced by our hungry neighbors. In the simulation, participants assume the roles of different families facing poverty and experience the difficult daily choices being made. The exercise utilizes volunteers who staff various resource tables and play different roles throughout the simulation to provide a realistic environment.

Food Shows

Volunteers will assist with food recovery at the end of local food industry conventions to help pack the food that exhibitors have donated into boxes and load it into a Food Bank truck.

Mobile Pantry

The Mobile Pantry is a “traveling food pantry” that delivers meat, produce, non-perishable food and other products to communities where the need for food surpasses the capacity of existing food pantry resources. Volunteers at the Mobile Pantry assist in distributing food to our hungry neighbors.

Produce Harvesting

On occasion farmers will donate crops to the Food Bank and we need to supply volunteers to harvest the produce so it can be brought to the Food Bank for distribution.